if they're going with boehner, it's a sign they'll deal. >> i want to bring in a democrat on both the armed services committee and select committee on intelligence and the fiscal cliff if i might. do you think the republicans will come to play? >> i believe that they will. it's my hope that everyone has gotten the message loud and clear that the american people expect us to compromise, democrats and republicans coming together to solve the fiscal cliff issue but in a balanced way and that is certainly what president obama has campaigned on protecting a strong middle class, allowing the tax cuts to expire above $250,000, but we can't be afraid to compromise but we can do that without compromising our principles. >> is part of this deal-making that the president wants to start his offer with more from the revenue side, the deal that fell apart, have $800 billion in revenue over ten years, now he might want to start with 1.6 trillion? >> sure, we're just -- let's put this in perspective. we have just over a trillion dollar budget deficit this year. so this part of raising additional reve